5 Marketing Research Methods You Should Know

Marketing research is the backbone of any campaign and strategy. Going in blind would leave you with missed targets, wasted opportunities, and disastrous results. A good understanding of your target market gives you an idea of approaching and, ultimately, achieving your goals.

To do this, organizations usually rely on various marketing research methods that give them a better insight into people’s preferences, attitudes, and emotions toward a particular data. If you’re looking to get closer to your market, here are four basic marketing research methods you should know:

1. Surveys

Surveys are among the most commonly used research methods, marketing or otherwise, to gauge a population’s response toward a particular topic. Generally, it uses a set of concise and straightforward questions usually answerable by a scale of answers. Survey research may be quantitative (using numerically-rated options) or qualitative (with descriptive, open-ended questions).

Usually, a group of respondents represents a larger population sample. For example, a survey about Physics assignment needs for middle school students could use a study of a hundred kids from different schools across the state. Researchers could take their response as indicative of most children in the location.

There are different types of survey research methods you can try out, usually depending on the nature of the data you need and the resources you have.

• Online surveys

These are most common nowadays, with social media and internet access proliferation. It is a relatively cheap way of getting insights from people. Although, you have no control over the nature of the respondents. Influencers and small businesses use Google Forms or Facebook and Twitter polls as surveying tools.

• In-person surveys

An in-person survey refers to one-on-one interviews where researchers pull respondents from the public, usually in places with a lot of traffic like malls and parks. While it provides a good distribution of respondents based on non-physical characteristics, it is usually more expensive and labor-intensive than other types of surveys.

• Phone or email surveys

These methods are commonly used for gauging customer experience after receiving a phone or email-based service. The customer representative might ask for permission to record the call, for documentation purposes, with consent from the respondent, and it usually takes only a couple of minutes to complete. Market research through phone surveys is now complex because of market resistance to most forms of telemarketing, requiring marketers to be more creative or outright resort to other methods.

2. Personal interviews

Whereas surveys rely on a structured, predetermined set of questions, personal interviews usually veer off to draw a more personal insight. From the marketer’s side, questions are used as a conversational guide. These are highly subjective and are not used to represent a population since they are not statistically grounded. However, this is particularly important in drawing specific, qualitative insights on market behavior and attitude.

A personal interview is usually scheduled between both parties, lasts for several minutes to over an hour, and is generally recorded for documentation purposes.

3. Focus groups

Focus groups are primarily similar to personal interviews but conducted over a larger group. Instead of the interviewer, a trained moderator guides a group (or different groups) in a discussion. Respondents usually come from a particular population subset, such as backgrounds, demographics, or other characteristics. Unlike personal interviews, the discussion among focus group participants draws valuable insights, and the moderator only intercepts at specific points to guide the conversation forward or back to the topic.

Topics may directly revolve around a product or service or indirectly through specific issues and character traits that marketers can use in product development or marketing efforts. Focus group discussions generally occur at neutral locations, often recorded and even videotaped for documentation.

4. Field trials

Commonly used for new products, field trials involve placing the concerned item in selected stores or in designated public locations to test them out. In the field trials conducted in stores, the objective is to check customer response under real-world market conditions. They are included on shelves without much fanfare and can give market researchers an idea of their capability to influence purchasing decisions based on factors of packaging and pricing.

Small business owners can also use this method to gauge interest in their products without excessive commitments on production and logistics. You can team up with local store owners to let them allot spaces for your items.

5. Observation

Observation is a standard procedure among businesses that can guide marketing research efforts. It simply entails observing customers in action, and in their natural environments, usually through video recordings. Observation can be done at purchase locations (malls, stores, kiosks) or on the streets or in their offices–with proper permission from property owners, of course.

Final Word

In any business, getting close to your clientele is the key to growth and success. This access to your market is why these marketing research methods are essential in gaining valuable insights into their attitude and preferences. However, make sure to preserve the integrity of your data. Always follow standards and regulations in conducting any of these strategies.

Bash Sarmiento Posted on 22-Mar-2022 10:52:00